Bottle closure

ABSTRACT

A bottle and cap combination wherein the upper region of the body of the bottle is elliptical or oblong, the neck of the bottle is elliptical and is joined to the body by a shoulder portion having sloping sides; and the cap comprises a hollow cupshaped member having a downwardly-extending skirt a snap-lock liquid-tight sealing arrangement internal of the skirt and at least one internal rib which is adapted to ride over the shoulder portion and which rib also serves as a guide means to position the cap on the bottle.

United States Patent 1191 Atkins Aug. 13, 1974 BOTTLE CLOSURE 3,468,4479/1969 Smalley 2l5/46R 3,471,052 10/1969 [75] Inventor: Herbert AshleyAtkins, Maidenhead, 3 651 972 3/1972 England 095,159 4/1935 Dl23,62111/1940 [73] Assignee. All/$32181; frgriligaggmted, Brentford, D! 34,07710/1942 g 19201.220 5/1965 Lorenzen 09/66 [22] Filed: May 19, 1972 [21]Appl. No.: 254,923

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 20, 1971 Great Britain16053/71 [52] US. Cl ..215 /321, 215/31, 215/295 [51] Int. Cl 865d41/06, 865d 41/22 [58] Field of Search 215/31, 41,46 R, l R; D9/59-76[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 587,776 8/l897 Young 215/31l,073,997 9/1913 London 2l5/l R Primary Examiner-William 1. PriceAssistant Examiner-Stephen Marcus [57] ABSTRACT A bottle and capcombination wherein the upper region of the body of the bottle iselliptical or oblong, the neck of the bottle is elliptical and is joinedto the body by a shoulder portion having sloping sides; and the capcomprises a hollow cup-shaped member having a downwardly-extending skirta snap-lock liquidtight sealing arrangement internal of the skirt and atleast one internal rib which is adapted to ride over the shoulderportion and which rib also serves as a guide means to position the capon the bottle.

6 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures PAIENTED AIJEI Iii-S74 3,828,962

SHEET 1 (IF 3 ma ma PATENIED Mm 319m SHEET 2 BF 3 PATENIED RUE 3 m4SHEET 3 [1F 3 Fig/i1. Fi/IZ. i913.

BOTTLE CLOSURE This invention relates to bottle closures wherein the capis adapted to be easily gripped in the hand and removed by a simpletwisting motion through not more than 90 and wherein the upper part ofthe bottle is adapted so that the cap is easily aligned with the bottlewhen being placed or replaced thereon.

Prior application Ser. No. 765,914 filed Oct. 8, 1968, now US. Pat. No.3,471,052 discloses a closure designed for use in bottles intended to beused for packaging liquid consumer goods.

When liquid consumer goods are packaged in bottles it is essential thatthe contents should be readily and easily accessible. Thus it isessential that the cap or closure device shall be easily removablewithout the need to apply any excessiveforces or pressures. On the otherhand, when the bottle is closed by the cap being in position on thebottle it is essential that the closure should be liquid-tight and notliable to be displaced by change, i

for instance when the goods are in transit or when the bottle is beingshaken prior to use. These are the prerequisites of any cap and bottledevice but other factors come into operation in particularcircumstances. For example, with mass produced bottle and caps it isessential that the bottles and caps should each separately be relativelycheap to produce without any especially intricate interengaging surfacesor devices which need to be designed and constructed to excessivelyclose tolerances. Thus simple caps with only one component member whichcan be moulded in one piece out of readily available cheap materialssuch as plastics are particularly suitable. It is also advantageous thatcaps should be applicable to the bottles in simple manner by machines.Another factor is that when all of the goods in the bottle will not beused at once the bottle should be re-closable as readily as it isopenable.

These desirable qualities are to be found in the closable bottle ofapplication Ser. No. 765,914 which comprises a cap-sealed bottle whereinthe bottle comprises a body, a shoulder portion and a neck, the shoulderportion commencing inwards from the top of the body thereby leaving aperipheral ledge at the uppermost boundary of the body, and wherein theshoulder portion and the upper region of the body immediately adjacentto the shoulder have half-turn symmetry about a vertical axis of thebottle such that their plan view is substantially elliptical or oblongthe shoulder having a convex surface along any vertical plane parallelto the minor axis of the elliptical or oblong plan and extending upwardsto merge into the neck of circular crosssection; and wherein the cap ismade of resilient plastic material and comprises an inverted hollowcup-shaped member having a downwardly extending skirt the lower edge ofwhich skirt conforms with the peripherical ledge on the body of thebottle and snap-lock liquidtight sealing arrangement interval of theskirt to close the aperture of the bottle neck, the cap having at leastone internal rib which is adapted to ride up the convex surface of thebottle shoulder when the cap is turned out of register with the bottleand thereby to release the snap-lock seal and cap from the bottle.

However. it has been found that if the cap is not properly aligned overthe bottle by the packaging machine, the snap-lock sealing arrangementmay not enter into full engagement without damage to the arrangement.particularly if the bottle is of some hard material such as glass.Moreover, the cap may sometimes be forced onto the bottle in anunsightly non-aligned position. It has now been found that thesedisadvantages can be overcome by some modification to the previousdesign, the principal one of which is to provide the bottle with a neckof elliptical, rather than of circular, cross-section as hitherto.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a bottle and cap combinationwherein the bottle comprises a body, a shoulder portion and a neckleading to an orifice, the upper region of the body of the bottleimmediately adjacent to the shoulder being substantially elliptical oroblong, the neck portion being substantially elliptical with its majoraxis parallel to and smaller than the major axis of the upper region ofthe body and the shoulder portion having sloping sides joining the upperregion of the body with the neck and the cap is made of resilientplastic material and comprises a hollow cupshaped member having adownwardly-extending skirt, the lower edge of which substantiallyconforms with the upper region of the body of the bottle, a snap-lockliquid-tight sealing arrangement internal of the skirt to close theorifice of the bottle neck and at least one internal rib which isadapted to ride over the shoulder portion and which rib also serves as aguide means to position the cap on the bottle such that it is fixedthereon with the major axis of the cap skirt coincident with that of theupper region of the bottle body.

Preferably, the upper region of the body terminates in a peripheralledge with which the lower edge of the cap skirt conforms.

Preferably, the major axis of the neck of the bottle is slightly greaterthan the minor axis of the lower edge of the cap skirt.

Preferably the bottle orifice is circular.

Preferably there are two internal ribs each shorter than and connectingthe inner sides of the skirt of the cap and projecting downwardly fromthe top of the cap parallel to, and on either side of, the minor axis ofthe other edge of the skirt. Preferably, also the ribs terminate in aconcave or V-shaped position adapted to cooperate with the shoulders ofthe bottle at the ends of the major axis thereof.

The bottle may be made of any suitable material such as glass orplastic. Such plastic may be of high, medium or low density so thatrigid or flexible bottles may be used.

The cap is constructed of a resilient material. A preferred material isplastic, suitable plastic materials including high density polyethylene,polypropylene, polyvinylchloride and the like.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example in theattached drawings which:

FIG. 1 is a frontal view of the upper region of the bottle with the capin position;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the upper region of the bottle I with the capin position FIG. 3 is a plan of the upper region of the bottle with thecap removed; FIG. 4 is a vertical section along the line AA in FIG.

HO. 5 is a vertical section along the line BB in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the inside of the cap;

FIG. 7 is a vertical section through the major axis in FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a vertical section along the line CC in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a frontal view of the upper region of an alternative bottlewith the cap in position.

FIG. 10 is a frontal view of the upper region of the bottle shown inFIG. 9 with the cap removed.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show the two side views of the upper region of thebottle shown in FIG. 9 FIG. 13 is a vertical section through the majoraxis in FIG. 9.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a cap (I) made of plastic is provided forfitting on a bottle (2). As shown in FIGS. 3 to the body has an upperperipheral ledge (3) situated at the base of the shoulder portion (4),the shoulder portion being joined at the other end to a neck portion (5)which in turn has its upper end joined to a mouthpiece (6) which carriesan annular flange (7) surrounding the orifice (8) of the bottle. Asillustrated the body of the bottle has a generally elliptical plansection. The shoulder portion (4) and the neck portion (5) of the bottlealso have generally elliptical plan sections as shown in FIG. 3, thosetwo elliptical forms being essential features of the present invention.

In general, the minor axes of these ellipses do not differ greatly, butthe major axes of plan sections of the shoulder portion decreaseprogressively between the peripheral ledge (3) (or the upper part of thebody if the ledge is not present) to the base of the neck portion, thatis the shoulders in front elevation view have sloping sides. However,the neck portion (5) has substantially vertical sides, though at itsupper end it has side bevels (9) so that the mouthpiece (6) annularflange (7) and orifice (8) are each substantially circular.

One form of the cap will now be described. The outer shape can easily beappreciated by reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 which show side views of it inposition on the bottle, and FIG. 5 which shows a plan view of theinside, the top outside plan being a plan ellipse of the same outsidedimension as that shown in FIG. 5. The cap comprises an inverted hollowplastic cup with an elliptical top surface (10) and downwardly extendingside walls or skirt (11). Inside the cap are two strengthening ribs l2)and 13) which are substantially rectangular in shape except for atrough-shaped cut-out portion (14) at the bottom. The inclined surfacesof the cut-out are labelled on rib (12) as faces (15) and (16). Theslope and position of these faces (15) and (16). [and the correspondingfaces on rib (13)] are such that they are just tangential to theshoulder portion (4) of the bottle when the cap is in the position. Thecap also has an inwardly extending plug in the form of a shortcylindrical wall (17) extending from and integral with the top surface(10). When the cap is on the bottle, this cylindrical plug fits insidethe delivery aperture of the neck of the bottle. Concentric with thiscylindrical plug (17) is a second sealing member in the form of acylindrical wall (18) of larger diameter than (17) and which itselfcarries an annular inwardly extending bead (19). When the cap is inposition on the bottle, the annular flange (7) of the neck is grippedbetween the cylindrical plug (17) and the cylindrical wall (18) withbead (19) of the cap.

The mode of fitting the cap to the bottle is to place the cap over theneck of the bottle and then apply a simple downward push. The downwardpush will cause the faces of the trough cut out of the ribs (12) and(13) to press against the bottle shoulder (4) and the natural tendencywill be for the cap ribs to ride down the slope of the shoulder tocentralise the cap above the major vertical sectional axis of symmetryof the bottle. Thus the cap cannot be applied wrongly.

An alternative form of closable bottle and its caps are shown in FIGS. 913. This particular alternative form dispenses with the half-turnsymmetry of the embodiment of the invention described above.

As may be seen from FIG. 10 this second form of bottle has a neckportion (5a) and shoulder portion (4a) that are longer on one side ofthe minor axis than on the other, this results in the peripheral ledge(30) sloping downward. Apart from these variations, the bottle is asdescribed above.

The outer shape of the cap to fit this bottle may be appreciated fromFIGS. 9, 11, and 12 where it may be seen that the skirt (11a) extendsdownward further on one side of the minor axis than on the other and soenable the cap to fit flush with the bottle. Inside the cap the onestrengthening rib extends downward further than the other strengtheningrib (1211). Apart from these features the cap is as previouslydescribed.

The mode of fitting the cap to the bottle is to place the cap over theneck of the bottle with the long side of the skirt over the side of thebottle with the deepest neck portion (5a) and shoulder portion (4a) andthen push down. As before, the downward push will cause the faces of thetrough cuts out of the ribs (12a) and (13a) to press against the bottleshoulder (411) so that the cap ribs will ride down the shoulder slopesand centralise the cap above the major vertical sectional axis ofsymmetry of the bottle. Thus the cap cannot be applied wrongly.

It will be appreciated that the exact shape of the shoulder portion ofthe bottle can be varied somewhat,

provided that it is still convex in cross section along the lines wherethe ribs contact it. Thus, an alternative construction is, for example,one wherein the shoulder is concave along the line of the major axis.However, when a moment is applied to the cap about a vertical axisthrough the bottle neck axis and cap center, the effect will still bethe same, namely that the troughshaped cut-out in the ribs will ride upthe convex shoulder causing the cap to be lifted upwards and off thebottle.

One obvious advantage of this type of removal is that the shape of thecap is such that it can be held easily in the hand even when wet orslippery. Various other modifications can be made to the bottle neck andcap without departing from the inventive principle. Thus the ellipticalplane shape of the bottle and cap illustrative above can be variedslightly making the plan view nearer to a rectangle.

Many other sealing arrangements and snap-lock devices and variations areknown in the container art which can be adapted to the cap and bottle ofthis invention. For example, the walls of the cylindrical plug (17) neednot contain a hollow area but meet so as to form a solid projectionextending downwards from the top surface (10) of the cap. Thisprojection may be of large or small diameter as long as it fits into andsubstantially seals the orifice (8) of the bottle.

I claim:

1. A bottle and cap combination wherein the bottle comprises a bodyhaving a shoulder portion and a neck leading to an orifice, the upperregion of the body im- .member having a downwardly-extending skirt, the

lower edge of which substantially conforms with the upper region of thebody of the bottle, a snap-lock liquid-tight sealing arrangementinternal of the skirt to close the orifice of the bottle neck and atleast one internal rib which is adapted to ride over the shoulderportion and which rib also serves as a guide means to position the capon the bottle such that it is fixed thereon with the major axis of thecap skirt coincident with that of the upper region of the bottle body,the major axis of the neck of the bottle being greater than the minoraxis of the lower edge of the cap skirt.

2. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the upperregion of the body terminates in a peripheral ledge with which the loweredge of the cap skirt conforms.

3. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the bottleorifice is circular.

4. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the cap has.two internal ribs each shorter than and connecting the innersides ofthe skirt of the cap and projecting downwardly from the top of the capparallel to, and one of the ribs being on each side of, the minor axisof the other edge of the skirt.

5. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 4 wherein theinternal ribs of the cap terminate in a concave or V-shaped positionadapted to co-operate with the shoulders of the bottle on the major axisthereof.

6. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the cap ofthe body of the bottle, the shoulder and the neck portion aresubstantially elliptical in plan, the orifice is circular, the shoulderportion commencing inwards from the top of the body thereby leaving aperipheral ledge at the uppermost portion of the body, the cap beingprovided with two internal-ribs each shorter than and connecting theinner sides of the skirt of the cap and projecting downwardly from thetop of the cap parallel to, and one of the ribs being on each side of,the minor axis of the other edge of the skirt and which ribs have asubstantially trough-shaped cut-out 'at their base adapted to co-operatewith the shoulders of the bottle on the major axis thereof.

1. A bottle and cap combination wherein the bottle comprises a body having a shoulder portion and a neck leading to an orifice, the upper region of the body immediately adjacent to the shoulder being substantially elliptical, the neck portion being substantially elliptical with its major axis parallel to and smaller than the major axis of the upper region of the body and the shoulder portion having sloping sides joining the upper region of the body with the neck; and a cap made of resilient material which comprises a hollow cup-shaped member having a downwardly-extending skirt, the lower edge of which substantially conforms with the upper region of the body of the bottle, a snaplock liquid-tight sealing arrangement internal of the skirt to close the orifice of the bottle neck and at least one internal rib which is adapted to ride over the shoulder portion and which rib also serves as a guide means to position the cap on the bottle such that it is fixed thereon with the major axis of the cap skirt coincident with that of the upper region of the bottle body, the major axis of the neck of the bottle being greater than the minor axis of the lower edge of the cap skirT.
 2. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the upper region of the body terminates in a peripheral ledge with which the lower edge of the cap skirt conforms.
 3. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the bottle orifice is circular.
 4. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the cap has two internal ribs each shorter than and connecting the innersides of the skirt of the cap and projecting downwardly from the top of the cap parallel to, and one of the ribs being on each side of, the minor axis of the other edge of the skirt.
 5. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 4 wherein the internal ribs of the cap terminate in a concave or V-shaped position adapted to co-operate with the shoulders of the bottle on the major axis thereof.
 6. A bottle and cap combination according to claim 1 wherein the cap of the body of the bottle, the shoulder and the neck portion are substantially elliptical in plan, the orifice is circular, the shoulder portion commencing inwards from the top of the body thereby leaving a peripheral ledge at the uppermost portion of the body, the cap being provided with two internal ribs each shorter than and connecting the inner sides of the skirt of the cap and projecting downwardly from the top of the cap parallel to, and one of the ribs being on each side of, the minor axis of the other edge of the skirt and which ribs have a substantially trough-shaped cut-out at their base adapted to co-operate with the shoulders of the bottle on the major axis thereof. 